


Hark! Yonder, the Cannons Roar

by karrenia_rune



Category: Piano Man - Billy Joel (Song)
Genre: Community: Theatrical Muse, Drama, Gen, Inspired by Music, laywers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-15
Updated: 2014-05-15
Packaged: 2018-01-24 22:28:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1619231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One of the regular  patrons at the local Manhattan piano bar,  is a successful lawyer, but has always felt as if something were lacking in his life so he auditions for a bit role in a community theater production.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hark! Yonder, the Cannons Roar

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mtgat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mtgat/gifts).



"Hark! Yonder, the Cannons Roar!" 

Robert Stevenson had always been on the fast track success ever since he could remember, an athlete from a very early age, a star pitcher in middle school and could have gone pro if he hadn’t gone to college majoring in pre-law and then on earning his degree as a civil attorney. 

He married his college sweet-heart Mindy and had two kids, He should be content with his life, right? 

Somehow the rest of the story had gone wrong somehow. Working a lawyer’s hours was trying and if he wanted to spend his off-hours in a smoky bar drinking, that was just the way things worked out sometimes.  
He was doing just that, drinking and reminiscing and going over the details of the case he had just lost by a very narrow margin when something hit him with the force of a sucker punch to the gut. 

Maybe, just maybe he didn’t want to be a lawyer anymore. Maybe he would try something else, something unexpected and new. As he thought about this, twirling the rim of his now empty glass of tonic and gin around between the fingers of his left hand, he considered his options.

It was never too late to go back to college and earn a degree in another field, but Robert was not entirely certain that was the track that he wanted to follow just now. 

“Really, what do I want to do?” he asked himself silently. He looked up towards the bar where John was reading the want ads in between taking and serving drink orders and saw a brightly colored slip out from between the newspaper.

He was near enough on to make a grab for it and then took a look at it. It was an advertisement for a local theater company called “The Penumbra.” They were looking were doing a play in the vein of Thomas O’Brien’s Age of Sail series “Master and Commander” and were looking for both walk-ins and experienced actors to audition for a bit role in the show.

In that particular instant it occurred to Robert to leave the bar, go home and call the number of the theater first thing the following morning.

He woke up the following morning, followed his usual routine, and dialed the number of theater, the person who picked up on the other end was a woman with a husky voice and a southern drawl, called him ‘Sugah’ and asked what can I help you with, darling?”

Robert Stevenson heaved a sigh and told her that he would like to schedule a time to try out for the role in their upcoming production.

She replied enthusiastically and said, she would need his address and a check made out to the Penumbra Theater to cover the cost of shipping and handling to send over the packet with the information about the play and his lines that he would need to memorize before auditioning.

He said that would be fine, thanked the woman and hung up. He went to work after that a confident spring in his step that had been for longer than he could remember.  
**  
Four days later the promised packet arrived and he sat down in his favorite chair in the living room and read over the contents, it was an Age of Sail production complete with period authentic costumes and swords, they called them cutlasses, and the main thrust of the conflict in the play would be between the Royal Navy and Bluebeard the Pirate. 

From what he could tell the play was still very much in the pre-production area because they had not yet given the play a name. Several had been suggested in the information he had been given but all had been written in pencil and scribbled out using a pencil.

Robert didn’t mind, but right at the top were instructions on his role, a minor one, but important for the play’s finale. He was supposed to walk onto to stage near ac four and take up a martial stance and utters the following lines; “Hark, Yonder, the Cannons roar!”

He could manage that,’ he thought. “No problem, he said aloud. So, for the next few days as he brushed his teeth, or combed his ginger-colored beard and hair, studying his reflection in the mirror, he would practice his lines. 

He would even practice his lines silently to himself as he rode the subway to his law office, and as he rode to the elevator up to his the eighth floor.

At last the day of his audition came and he took the subway to 270 and Kent Ave in downtown Manhattan. 

The woman with the southern drawl greeted him as he came in, introducing herself as Olivia Dunham, and efficiently and cheerily took charge of all of the new arrivals, getting them sorted and ready to go, explaining that they would each go on in the order of their appearances in the play. Feeling that it might be a while he took a seat in the audience and waited for his turn to go on.

Olivia gave him a white uniform jacket with a starched stripped blue and white shirt with puffy sleeves and a tricorn red and blue matching hat. The shoulders of the jacket featured gold epaulets and gold buttons running down the middle. 

There was a mirror off to one side of the wall of the entrance of the stage and Robert could not help but preen a little as he admired the costume. It was very nice, and he did off-set his newly trimmed beard, another that red hair off his was a bit jarring, ‘Ah well, he thought to himself, can’t be helped and besides no one in the audience is going to be looking very closely at me anyway.’

Just then his meandering thoughts were cut short as Olivia called his name and got up from his seat with a jolt, and climbed the few short steps up onto stage.

“Begin whenever you’re ready, Mr. Stevenson,” she said.

Robert cleared his throat and took up the practiced stance that he imagined would look very martial; declaring in a loud voice, “Hark! Yonder, the…”

Just as he was about to finish a loud and resounding “Boom!” Boom!” Boom!” thundered throughout the theater.

“What the hell was that?”

“The cannons,” Mr. Stevenson,” replied Olivia. “We here at the Penumbra Theater, pride ourselves on authenticity. Would you care to try your line once more?”

“Oh, eh, of course, that makes sense. Ah, yes, yes, I would.” Feeling more than a little rattled Robert tried to pull himself together and not as confidently as might have otherwise liked, he declaimed in a loud voice. “Hark, Yonder, the Cannons Roar,” and no sooner than the words were out of his mouth, the thundering “BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! came again.

He blushed almost as red as his beard, but all the same he thought that his very first audition had gone very well, give or take a slip or two.

“How did I do, Ms. Dunham? “asked Robert.

“Pretty good,” replied Olivia. “I still have a few more auditions after yours, but I will call tomorrow and let you if you got the part. How does that sound?”

“Just fine, thank you,” he replied.

Maybe he would stick with this acting gig, sure it may not be as lucrative as being a lawyer but he was tired of that, and it appealed to a sense of adventure within himself that for years he hadn’t known that he had and lost along the way. Now, he just hoped that he got the part and if it panned out it might lead to even more on stage roles in the future.

He couldn’t wait to tell John at the bar, because John would understand, he wasn’t as certain about his wife, but he would cross that proverbial bridge when he came to it.


End file.
